Not sure whether there is much visibility in the forum here in Aus re the fact that the ACT has some rather interesting advantages for the 328i buyer.

The best thing about a 328i in the ACT is there is no stamp duty in the ACT, which as a result makes it about $2.5k cheaper than everywhere else. Additionally LCT doesn't kick in until $75k mark because of its low fuel consumption. The net effect is that a car bought out of Canberra will offer substantial savings over other states.

If you want to try the water, and give a Sales person a hard time, call Darren at Rolfe in Canberra, (02) 6208 4126.

I am colecting my M Sport 328 from Rolfe Classic this Friday. I live over the border in NSW. There is a stamp duty loophole in ACT where they register the vehicle as a dealer demo then transfer the ownership to you. I am saving $ 2.5k due to that loophole.

The dealer explained it as a loophole in the legislation. They register it as a dealer demo with a regular ACT rego plate. They then tell ACT motor registry that it should be transferred to your ownership and no stamp duty is paid as you are not an ACT resident. ACT allows you to hold ACT registration if you live interstate (NSW at least - might need to investigate other states). Once the rego expires a year later you can then go change your plates and register in home state. My one concern is that you typically have to change rego within 3 months of moving interstate and I have lived in NSW for many years. So what I will do is change early and get a pro rata refund from ACT and re-register in NSW. Given we pay enough other taxes on the transaction, saving $2.5k on stamp duty is a nice bonus.

ACT has other interesting benefits....for example if you buy investment property you can claim the stamp duty in full against federal income tax in year 1..... something you can apparently only do in the territories but not the states.

Good to know, although a bit late for me, I ordered a 328i Lux a month or so ago, it arrived in Port Melb yesterday so should get it in a few weeks. All up I was high $60s with a fair amount of options. So, I avoided LCT.

Now the search for a "fun weekender" can begin in earnest since I sold my 1M.

Oh dear.. maybe I should throw in the M performance pack during the mid life upgrade and sell!

Only for your own benefit, never for resale.
From what I learnt in selling the E90 privately, no one cares about your options & upgrades. They only look at the base car (even if fully optioned) price and work from there.

One idiot tyre kicker posted me a carsales link to a 2005 E90 similar to mine, for $25k. I then quickly checked carsales and posted him a link to another 2005 E90 (not mine) for $35k. A polite way of telling him to get lost.

Keeping the car in tip top condition is very important as is low kms. Pretty much everything else is moot to a second hand buyer, especially if the car is 7 years old as they look at the age of the car and think that lots of maintenance work has to be done. No necessarily true, but they do not know how you treated your car over the previous years of ownership.

They only remember the one off horror story of say an electrical failure, the a/c not working, bits falling off etc. This is the association made with certain brands & models. They never think of the thousands of other perfectly performing cars in great condition.

The smart buyer will look past these and really look at the individual car for sale. The smart buyer is very rare indeed.

Only for your own benefit, never for resale.
From what I learnt in selling the E90 privately, no one cares about your options & upgrades. They only look at the base car (even if fully optioned) price and work from there.

One idiot tyre kicker posted me a carsales link to a 2005 E90 similar to mine, for $25k. I then quickly checked carsales and posted him a link to another 2005 E90 (not mine) for $35k. A polite way of telling him to get lost.

Keeping the car in tip top condition is very important as is low kms. Pretty much everything else is moot to a second hand buyer, especially if the car is 7 years old as they look at the age of the car and think that lots of maintenance work has to be done. No necessarily true, but they do not know how you treated your car over the previous years of ownership.

They only remember the one off horror story of say an electrical failure, the a/c not working, bits falling off etc. This is the association made with certain brands & models. They never think of the thousands of other perfectly performing cars in great condition.

The smart buyer will look past these and really look at the individual car for sale. The smart buyer is very rare indeed.

Very true.. I have never kept a car for more than 4 years. I think in 4 years it'll probably go fro 90+ to 40..

maybe i'm thinking i haven't been driving enough in the Sports mode yet. (Still waiting to finish the run in period) then perhaps my opinion will change.

Ok, I understand. Yes, I too am well short of the 2k run in distance, but we will get there soon. Oddly enough, I am happy to potter in EP mode as the damn traffic is so heavy when I'm out & about anyway.

I did try out a few 4k starts from the lights in plain Comfort along Nepean Hwy Brighton yesterday after work. The 4 cylinder is rather quick to reach 80km/h, without terribly much pedal effort but it just doesn't have that instant jerk/jolt of the E90's 325 engine.

Still very hard for me to get a decent run anywhere except for some country roads, which has to wait a while as I have lots of work to do (to pay for the car and lifestyle) so yes, we will wait until the run in has completed before seeing what the 328i is truly capable of achieving. We should be just fine. Cheers.

Another question I forgot ask is what RON fuel you are using. Stillwell BMW filled my car with 95 but I have always used 98RON. I recently filled the car for the first time with 98RON and I could seriously feel a difference in performance. Seriously. Already. Yes.

Even EP mode has a bit more kick to it. Maybe also the car has more kms is loosening up and maybe because when I can, I'm starting to push it a little more.

Anyway, all of BMW's performance figures are based on using 98RON, even though they recommend 95RON. 98RON it is for my F30.

I always get confused about all this 85/98RON fuel business... I have always been using 98 here in Aus but I remember reading somewhere (not sure if total BS or not) that our 98 is somewhere else's 95, so when it states " 95 RON recommended " I don't really know if that's our 95 or 95 from somewhere else...

On the fuel I have posted it one of the forums not sure which but.. BMW recommends 90 ron as a minimum I think..

Spikey: You can find out the RoN amounts for Shell or BP at their website. For BP its branded as BP Ultimate and Shell is VPower. I certain these two are 98 RON. I'm a big fan of BP as I saw some stats online before that it offers one of the best fuels. I'm sure it doesnt really matter at the end of the day.

Basically the higher the RON value the cleaner the ignition burn. I have tried this and you really want this cleaner burn and combustion of the engine. You will see a lot of threads that Americans find residue on their exhaust (they have a lower RON range, their highest grade could have been 95 and lowest being in the 80's). This is what is left from the burn. Basically this residue in the engine can cause engine knocking.. which is bad for the engine.

David: Similar to you my dealer filled the tank up with RON95 which is of course cheaper cost for them. I ran it empty and toped it up 98 straight away..definitely felt better acceleration after swapping the fuel.